Building a creative career from the ground up

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Good morning fellow fastlaners.
Posting at 1:00am as I wake up from a nap - burning the midnight oil.

Without going into too much detail about my background, I am 19 - making my way into a music career through semi-unconventional means to this industry.

As a quick disclaimer, what my "creative career" actually consists of is 3 - yes, 3 - different "businesses..."

HOWEVER, they are all very similar and will feed of of each other + synergize once they are sufficiently built. Most fastlaners will argue that we need to focus on one thing - but I want to make the distinction that these three are NOT hugely deviant from each other.

I admit, it's not easy front-loading 3 different projects...but I try to focus on the work that is most important and try to get each one to a point where it will take as little involvement as possible to keep these things maintained.

These are:

1: (My Personal) Music Project
Any and all activities related to the creation + performance of music, whether original to serve as entertainment for an audience, or commercially composed to serve a function in another creative work.

2: (Music) Blog
Not just any music blog. I want to change lives. I want to give artists the courage to create. This project is the running documentation of what I will be doing for the next few months and beyond - I am doing this because nobody else has documented it. I want to document and show people what it takes to make it...but it's only possible by pushing the music project.

3: Band Merchandising
Basically another business that nobody else has done before; I create graphics + ecommerce stores for bands for free for a % cut of what they make. This project is a few months in the making already with a validated concept - it solves a huge need in my market - but it hasn't scaled like it should.

Briefly, what has happened this past month...

SEPTEMBER:

Band Merchandising:
Prior to this month I have been running the business by actively reaching out to musicians who wanted to work with us. Ended up taking too much time and effort to keep up with all of the contacts. Wanted to build something that leads will be attracted to, instead of me spinning my tires contacting individuals.
So...

-Built my first website and ran PPC Campaign - split tests revealed which methods worked the best to drive traffic.

- Closed on a few license deals, one new online store up and running. No new sales this month.

It's becoming very evident that there are design and copy flaws that are not allowing the site to convert more visitors. Also the functionality is flawed; how it is set up involves too much back-and-forth communication. Hinders progress but this is very important information - Design and functionality improvements will be a priority next month to help streamline the design process.

Music Project:
- Got involved in a great music composition project with a local entertainment company, producing a night show in the hydroflight niche. Developed our first show in under a month and performed to a group of ~1,200 people at a public event. This project was the bulk of the work this month and alone made me reach my income goal for this month.

- Daily writing. Having enormous creative breakthroughs by challenging myself to write one new song and publish it every day. Having daily content has helped grow attention slightly, averaging 1,100 plays on soundcloud alone each month (at the end of the day money talks, but shows marketing strategies and making content consistently and in large volume is working. Previously I average ~300 plays per month).

Music Blog:
- Daily Writing. Made a bulk amount of content that will be drip-released in the coming month.

-Very rough website up & running.

Not a significant amount of progress with this particular project, but the content is there.

Bonus Miscellaneous:

So, let's talk about timing...and health.
This all came when it felt like the floodgates were about to open.

For the last 6 months, I was working at a website development company.
They probably haven't changed the air filter in 15 years, and the dude sitting next to me constantly vaped in the office. I was sedentary for several hours a day.

I was getting sick, low energy, probably low T, etc

It took a ton of time away from everything above and I wasn't making much money ($9 an hour).
Also, manager wanted me to take on all of his responsibilities for when he went on vacation in October.

No. I was not about to spend more time rotting away in a chair.

I realized I could be making much more money doing something else.
So I took the leap and quit my job.

This past month has been the most challenging and exciting month of my life, I feel more vibrant and healthier than I have ever been before.

So, there you go. I will update this thread later for my current goals for October - for now, need to get back to work. I am 100% to all criticism, suggestions, etc.

Peace
UC

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

UPDATE 10/17

Funny how goals change.
I posted this close to the beginning of Oct. to recap what happened last month with the intent of posting this month's goals. These last few weeks have turned into more of a "less talk, more do" scenario, and much of what i had written down as big milestones have morphed significantly. Nevertheless...

In September, my goal was $500 cumulative from any income stream. This consisted of:
+$400: Composition project (the rest of what was owed from Aug.)
+$100: Personal Sales

In hindsight, it was actually pretty easy to accomplish.
So I set this month's income goal as double; $1,000 cumulative from any income stream.

So far:

Music Project:
-Launched my subscription site for my music. User subscribes for a certain amount of $ per month for access to old content and to have new content delivered to them. So far it is only a week old, but all systems are in place to scale infinitely (some design things I want to change, but functionality was #1 in this case leading up to a BIG push. More below). I only have a couple users who joined thus far, but...
-I will be playing a very large + popular event in my local area that will draw a lot of attention to the website. I intend on blowing everyone's minds and then plugging the site on mic
-Earlier this month, I wrote a remix that has generated over 4000 plays at this time, generating attention to the music project and site. Will keep the music creation process moving as best I can, while leveraging other people's network to push the site.

I've obviously have been occupied with content creation, but keeping a close eye on analytics to see how well the site actually performs from a conversion standpoint.
Unrelated to the website...

-Last month, I was given a proposal to compose for an indie video game developer.
Given storyboard etc, but project is up in the air right now. Not sure if it will continue.
-Also needing to follow up with entertainment company mentioned in last month. Their project is sort of on the backburner as far as I can tell because they didn't get the funding they expected from "investor." Head of Co. owes me a call soon though so we can get up to speed on getting more shows.

Music Blog:
-Writing more. It's been an interesting challenge. Requires you to really analyze your thoughts and solidify your theories.
This project will be part of a much larger-scale long term deal, so will keep this up. Intending to use the same method of leveraging other's networks to spread message. Not worried about monetization tactics at the very moment - focusing on changing lives first.

Band Merchandising:
-Unfortunately no progress this month, placed on backburner. It's still part of the long-term strategy but would like to introduce in the future as service that I can funnel my blog readers to - doing so will also be a hell of a lot easier than chasing clients! I will consider changing design + functions in Mid November or sooner to make the site convert better. The concept is validated, has made money before (albeit on an inconsistent basis), just focus is on other projects right now.

Bonus Miscellaneous:
So, I'm reading Robert Greene's "33 Strategies of War" right now. An interesting idea I've noticed in myself and reflected in the book is the idea that the people that really are pushing themselves forward are the ones who, in a way, are very stoic about how they view their current position in life, whatever it is. I'll have to look back at the specific concept, but the guys who were "like water," who do not hold on to fairytale ideals, passions, etc, are the ones who become incredibly successful. They do what works and not much else (unless we are concerned about how to keep our morale high over the long term. Then by all means it's important to consider where your current venture is playing into your long-term strategy or "life purpose" - whatever you define that as. I know what is important to me right now and do not shake from it).

With that being said, there have been some very interesting opportunities fall into my lap recently that I gladly took up.

One was that i offered to sell a bunch of stuff stockpiled in my roomate's garage for a % cut of the profits and he agreed. I make some money, he makes some money as well and he has less shit in his garage. Yardsale is in two weeks, pretty much liquidating the whole shit-selling side biz and making a lot of $ in one fell swoop.

Another was that my roommate will be moving out soon, and he'll basically make me landlord.
He sublet a room to me but now the roles will reverse - I will be able to sublet two rooms. If everything works out well, it will bring in +$1K cash flow per month - which is this month's goal.

You do what works.
Excited to see what the rest of this month brings.

For now, Things are getting down to the wire. Intense days to make things work out.
Will keep all posted.
UC

BONUS:
Failures + Lessons

-The membership site took way too damn long to make. I was distracted for a solid week by the election in USA...then I read "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and it completely changed my work habits. What would have taken a distracted person 2 weeks to complete took 4 days of unbroken concentration.
-Speaking of distraction, what is thought as harmless to ordinary people has become dangerous in my situation. If I don't work I literally don't eat.
Some points are stressful, but they all work themselves out & I come back stronger each and every time. Now I incorporate a negative visualization technique that is very effective to pushing me to action. I use this to face proverbial death without fear.

Edit: I know above line sounds pretty harsh but it's actually not bad - doesn't happen often, keeps you on your feet, forces you to be imaginative on how to advance your situation. I actually eat very well and am looking + feeling better. Bodyfat % is less, getting slim, making gains, channeling boundless energy into business. It's tough but I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

11/13 Update:
Enter Colossal Failure and Valuable Lessons

There is a reason why people say FOCUS on one business at the time.
It is a natural law that if you attempt to build 2 or more projects at once,
all will fail

Music Membership Site
a product nobody wanted.

Music Blog
It may work in the future, but it is not time yet.

Merchandising Business
I have refocused all of my energy into this.
Over $100 this month in sales alone.

Will give a full update in a few weeks.
No time to lose.



​

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Happy early Thanksgiving (USA)!

This has been the most challenging but significantly rewarding month in a long time.

A quick recap of following challenges and successes:

-Decided to FOCUS on one business, going all in on only the merchandising business. Was best decision I could have made.
Not a sexy business, but it was stupid to ignore the path that so obviously can grow and had already made money.
-Develop RSI in right hand, couldn't use computer for a whole week. Had the blues and general mindlessness for a whole week because of lost traction.
-Even though I couldn't use a computer, I still made sales (gross profit is a little more than displayed) It was such a gratifying feeling not only that I am filling a huge need, but also that without doing ANYTHING due to the RSI, I was still making money:

Obviously not much, but still happy. If you want to be real, I consider this the first month of being "In Business" since this is the first time I have put significant focus and effort into it. So, happy about progress so far. It's like a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel

Not much else to say atm, but will keep this thread updated

UC

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

As a side note, this update is very short since most of the changes happening are psychological, happening "on the inside" and not much "on the outside" (business, lifestyle, etc) that I believe would be worth posting about until there are results to show for the mindset changes.

UC